Impressions: Notting Hill Carnival Wrap-up, Part One

Words by DJ Theory, Photos by DJ Gravy—

“Notting Hill was crazy, as I left my hotel the first day there I literally just followed the sound of soca and horns.”

This past weeked our own DJ Gravy made a quick trip to London to take part in the Notting Hill Carnival madness. As supplement to the local soundsystems and street raving, the Major Lazer x Red Bull Music Academy carnival event was a definite highlight, as well as the Orange Hill dance that also included Gravy on the wheels, plus LargeUp/Major Lazer team member Walshy Fire, the bredrin Toddla T, BBC’s Robbo Ranx, Seani B and more. Pree some of the pics above to get a glimpse of the vibes from those events via Sean Paul, Machel Montano x Dre Skull, David Rodigan, Bay-C from T.O.K, Diplo, Walshy Fire, our bake and shark judge Jillionaire and our friends at Orange Hill. Madd a road. Check the personal re-cap from Gravy below as well:

“Whoa, the Soca is still playing in my head, and the taste of rum is not too distant a memory. Right away I was captured by the million or so people repping a very diverse mix of all races and backgrounds, all liming to the sounds of the Caribbean. I got totally had by a dancer with paint on her hand, but who cares about a favorite shirt, right? It’s fuckin’ carnival!

The second day I attended the Red Bull Music Academy event and to say it was epic would not be a stretch. David Rodigan was met with an onslaught of forwards for his set of classics, Machel Montano tore it up with Dre Skull on decks, Sean Paul performed as strong as I’ve ever seen him, Major Lazer was straight up bananas, they pull out all the stops. Shouts to LargeUp fam Walshy Fire and Jillionaire as they’ve taken the Major Lazer experience to another level. Speaking with them both about it, Jillionaire said “yeah we tryna make it a stage show fam. Like bring the theatrical elements of TNT carnival and dancehall stageshow to dance music.” And that’s just what they did.

After that it was straight to the Orange Hill Electro Bashy party, I played right after Robbo Ranx and was followed by Walshy Fire and Orange Hill. Everyone killed it, the LargeUp banner hung proudly and we’ll be continuing to collab with them on events in London so stay tuned for upcoming bashy raves, innit?”